The Journal of Commercial Biotechnology is a unique forum for all those involved in biotechnology commercialization to present, share, and explore new ideas, latest thinking and best practices, making it an indispensable guide for those developing projects and careers within this fast moving field.

Each issue publishes peer-reviewed, authoritative, cutting-edge articles written by the leading practitioners and researchers in the field, addressing topics such as:

This is a guest post from Steve McLaughlin, Managing Partner and Founder of US BioSearch. Do you have a response to Steve’s post? Respond in the comments section below.

Effective succession plans involve a combination of many choices and decisions that are distinctive to each, specific company. Bioscience companies also present their own, unique challenges, as I have learned with my 28 years of leadership experience as a U.S. Marine Officer, Foreign Service Officer, founder of a medium sized European consultancy company, and bioscience recruiter.

The first crucial point is that a solid plan does not center solely on the president and founder of the company. A strong succession plan will focus on the entire company. A succession plan for the president and founder undoubtedly needs to be addressed, but not at the expense of the larger organization. The following points address this issue.

I strongly believe a good succession plans begins with a company’s target market and not on the structure of the organization, i.e. the good plan focuses on the products or services that the market demands, and this will tailor the other needs of the company accordingly.

A successful company exists to service the market. While this fact is well known it can easily be forgotten as a company reaches a certain size. As organizations grow, the focus often tends to become more “internal” — on structure, internal policy, personnel issues, and the like. At this stage, businesses often forget and focus less on the reason the company exists in the first place, which is to service an outside need, and to do this as best they can.

Some organizations are able to handle change better than others. This was evident to me with the Marine Corps when I served as an Officer in the 1980’s. The Marines never lost sight of their ultimate goal—an effective combat organization in a changing world–and utilized the best skill sets and technology available to achieve it. However, when I was employed with the State Department, I saw that the organization did not understand how to adapt in a changing world. I found this institution struggled with many issues, one being the rapid growth and importance of the Internet, and was not able to define a core function.

How does focusing on the target market relate to good succession planning? A company which does not understand the reason it exists – what service it provides to its market – cannot possibly comprehend which staff positions are essential. For example, a drug company subsists to provide drugs to the marketplace. It’s therefore critical to understand the key skill sets involved in creating these new drugs, which brings us back to the company’s succession plan. Will the business lose some of its key members to retirement? Does it have the right scientific skills and technology to develop these new products? These are some of the key questions to ask.

A good succession plan also involves having a solid understanding of the intricate needs of the current and future structure of the company. Businesses require different types of organization depending on their revenue model. A company that grows past a certain threshold of revenue, for instance, will require different skill sets from its employees and need more experienced leaders. A good succession plan will include this important concept.

A related example is a succession plan that includes a strategy for when the business needs to have certain Human Resource functions internal to the company. If the company anticipates growing to this point, and has a general idea of when that point might be, it can create a plan for internally grooming the right individual to take on that position at the appropriate time.

A solid succession plan will also take into account the various skill sets available to and required for the business to be successful. Employee talent and technical skill sets are required to produce quality products or services and determine the overall success of the company. The plan should estimate the training, experience, and skill sets required for each function. It should be dictate where or how these skill sets can be acquired, and it should include a logical career progression in the market for each position. The plan needs to additionally include the market value of each skill set and any potential shortages that may exist. For example, good bioscience companies know that bioinformatics individuals are in high demand by companies outside bioscience, and therefore, they must plan for this accordingly.

In addition, a strategic succession plan will include several levels of staff promotion opportunities, and in particular, prepare for the next two or three levels of promotion for each key skill set within the company. This would include plans for employee training to gain the skills needed for individual advancement. The plan should also project potential deficits in staff numbers caused by retirements, attrition, or other events typically beyond the control of the business.

I have seen this balancing act successfully applied in the corporate world and in the bioscience sector. Well led companies understand this balance. It is the reason such businesses can exist and thrive long-term, supporting the needs of individuals who will rise in the organization. I also believe the right external expert, who has years of experience dealing with leadership and talent challenges, can aide companies with the issue. He or she can correctly guide an organization and company to create a strong succession plan, without endangering revenue.

About the author:

Prior to starting US BioSearch, Steve was a Managing Partner at Beckett McLaughlin International, LLC. He was responsible for the firm’s Global Life Sciences practice as well as international business development in Latin America and Europe. In this role he was responsible for developing Executive Recruiting and Market Research business in the Energy, Life Sciences, Information Technology, Banking and Finance Industries. Steve was also a senior executive for a risk analysis firm which advised a major financial house on private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund investments. Previously, he started and ran a successful European consultancy advising U.S. clients on penetrating emerging European markets. Earlier in his career Steve worked as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, conducting risk analysis and geopolitical reporting in Chile, Peru, and Mexico. Steve served as a U.S. Marine Corps Officer with four years service. Steve was born in the Middle East and lived in Israel, Italy, Nigeria, Somalia, Mexico, Barbados, and the Dominican Republic. He is a graduate of Rice University with a B.A. in History, where he was student body president. He also completed graduate studies in International Trade Theory at the Universidad Mayor in Santiago, Chile. Steve speaks native Spanish and English, and fluent French.

ABSTRACT: Alder Hey Children's Hospital supplied parts of the thymus gland removed from young children during heart surgery to a pharmaceutical company. The circumstances raised a number of very serious issues to the medical research community and have led to a consideration of the legal and ethical framework in which human tissue is used for medical research...

The Journal of Commercial Biotechnology is a unique forum for all those involved in biotechnology commercialization to present, share, and explore new ideas, latest thinking and best practices, making it an indispensable guide for those developing projects and careers within this fast moving field.

Each issue publishes peer-reviewed, authoritative, cutting-edge articles written by the leading practitioners and researchers in the field, addressing topics such as:

ABSTRACT: Presents a study that examined the history, ethical debates and religious views regarding embryo and stem cell research in the U.S. Effect of the abortion debate on embryo research in the U.S.; Reason behind the reluctance of the federal government to fund therapeutic research; Role of the private sector in the development of embryo and stem cell research.

The Journal of Commercial Biotechnology is a unique forum for all those involved in biotechnology commercialization to present, share, and explore new ideas, latest thinking and best practices, making it an indispensable guide for those developing projects and careers within this fast moving field.

Each issue publishes peer-reviewed, authoritative, cutting-edge articles written by the leading practitioners and researchers in the field, addressing topics such as:

Mergers and acquisitions are regular events for biotechnology companies. I have often been asked if being acquired is a goal for biotechnology companies, and if it is seen as a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ thing.

Value Creation in Biotechnology

The outlook on merging with another company, or being acquired, is really just a matter of timing. As I describe in my textbook, Building Biotechnology, the goal of young biotechnology companies is to de-risk their technologies to the point that the value of the company exceeds the time and financial investments. For example, the value of most biotechnology companies will be lower than the inputs for the course of much of their early research. Ideally, there will be an inflection point(s) as R&D progresses where the potential of serving lucrative markets will yield a healthy valuation. At this point, a company may lean on its strong valuation to raise funds at attractive rates, or seek to sell/license technologies or seek to merge with or be acquired by a more mature firm.

This brisk illustration glosses over many of the nuances of biotechnology R&D and fund raising; the greater point I want to make is how public companies can avoid being acquired.

When the perceived value of a company exceeds the cost to acquire that company, investors and acquirers may seek to purchase the company, to profit from the difference in the company’s value vs. its cost. While a private company (and its shareholders) may resist acquisition by simply not selling their shares, public companies do not have that luxury. Because shares in public companies can be purchased on open exchanges, it may not be possible for a public company to prevent acquisition by restricting the sale of stock.

So, what can a public company do to prevent acquisition?

On a recent visit to Carlsbad, California, I asked this very question of ISIS Pharmaceuticals CEO Stanley T. Crooke*. He had a relatively simple answer: Offer potential acquirers the technology and products they seek at a price that is lower than the cost to acquire the whole company.

Unfortunately time did not allow two important follow-up questions: Firstly, how can a CEO prevent being overruled by the board of directors (who are charged with representing the interests of shareholders) when intentionally sacrificing short-term returns for a potential long-term payout? And, secondly, what is to prevent an aggressive company from acquiring ISIS if only to prevent another licensee from doing the same and blocking the first licensee from its access to ISIS’ technologies?

*An interesting note about Stanley Crooke. He founded ISIS more than 20 years ago, and remains CEO to this day. This is in sharp contrast to most biotechnology company founders, who are replaced shortly following venture financing or IPO (When should you fire the founder)

ABSTRACT: Biopharmaceuticals and innovative therapeutic solutions offer treatments that are increasingly tailored to patient needs. Although biotechnology has produced health benefits, biopharmaceutical products require resources that governments had not planned or budgeted for in the appropriate time frame...

The Journal of Commercial Biotechnology is a unique forum for all those involved in biotechnology commercialization to present, share, and explore new ideas, latest thinking and best practices, making it an indispensable guide for those developing projects and careers within this fast moving field.

Each issue publishes peer-reviewed, authoritative, cutting-edge articles written by the leading practitioners and researchers in the field, addressing topics such as:

I will be giving a talk on September 10th at George Washington University on two recent data analytics projects:

Firstly, I will present Scientific American Worldview, a global biotechnology ranking I developed six years ago and have managed since. The primary challenges in developing Worldview have been ensuring that the product is accessible to a general audience and ensuring that it delivers actionable guidance to countries at all levels of development.

The second project I will present is PatentStat.com, a website dedicated to increasing transparency in patent prosecution. PatentStat ranks patent attorneys and law firms in 33 technology areas, and profiles patent examiners. The primary challenges in developing PatentStat have been reducing the multi-terabyte United States patent database into a focused dataset amenable to manipulation on commodity hardware and, once again, ensuring the product is accessible to a general audience by actionable and relevant to an advanced audience.